Rees lives to fight another state election

Former NSW Premier
Nathan Rees
is set to stand in the state election in March after the timely intervention of Labor’s head office.

After a meeting of state party officials yesterday, NSW Labor referred Mr Rees’s preselection to the national executive, which is expected to rubber stamp his candidacy some time next week.

The move ensures Mr Rees will avoid a messy preselection battle in his seat of Toongabbie in Sydney’s west.

Federal MP
Laurie Ferguson
, who is a member of a rival Left faction, and state MP
Joe Tripodi
, who was sacked from the Rees frontbench last year, had thrown their support behind local candidate Susai Benjamin.

However, Labor’s head office moved to avoid the embarrassing removal of a former premier after just one term in Parliament.

“The NSW Labor Party officers decided that a drawn-out preselection process in the seat of a former premier would be an unnecessary distraction in the lead-up to the March 2011 election," a spokesman said yesterday.

The decision comes just a day after NSW Premier
Kristina Keneally
refused to publicly back Mr Rees.

Tourism Minister
Jodi McKay
has avoided a battle for the seat of Newcastle, after her preselection was also referred to the national executive.

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Both preselections are expected to be voted on by the executive – which includes 21 state and federal Labor Party members including Prime Minister
Julia Gillard
and Rees supporter and Infrastructure Minister
Anthony Albanese
– some time next week.

Other candidates can nominate, but one Labor source said yesterday he was confident Mr Rees would have the unanimous backing of the executive.

Mr Rees was premier for just 15 months before he was replaced by Ms Keneally in December last year.

The morning of his removal, he told a press conference that his successor would be the “puppet" of right-wing power brokers Mr Tripodi and
Eddie Obeid
.